Sunday, September 26, 2010

Phew! One more thing finished. I have to laugh at my rollercoaster evaluation of projects as they progress. I go from thinking something will be quick and finished in no time at all to feeling like I'll never find the time to work on it again. So I try to prioritize. After getting the invitations out for Scarlett's second birthday party I started on her birthday dress. Every party needs a new dress! And the effort just happened to coincide nicely with KCWC, so I felt I was in good company trying to find an hour or two to move this project forward.

I had a few ideas for Scarlett's second birthday dress, including designing my own fabric, but I decided on applique farm animals as something more achievable in the time frame. I love the result! I don't do a lot of applique but once I started thinking about it I came up with more ideas than I'll have time to execute for the party, so I may be in the Modern Farm mode for a bit afterwards.

I have wanted to make this dress for some time. It would be cute in so many fabrics--I chose this natural linen which has the most gorgeous hand. I love linen and think it is just fine for it to be wrinkled! I also went with fabric covered buttons, which I prefer for most things.

I almost made this for Scarlett for her first birthday, but opted for something simpler last year. It's always nice to use one of the vintage patterns I've purchased--I am such a sucker for them. This one didn't even have the envelope, which is too bad because the pattern illustration would be darling in color. I love this artist smock look! Too cute!

It would have been fun to put Scarlett in this dress and get some photos but she has been under the weather so those photos will have to wait...

It was fun designing these appliques. Cutting them wasn't as fun, but I used HeatN'Bond, which made it much easier to cut the fabric. I think these would be darling in a small calico print too.﻿

I wasn't quite sure how to stitch the appliques--zig zag, blanket stitch, stitch by hand.... Not surprisingly I decided to machine stitch (a time saver I thought) and used a straight stitch so as not to muck up the detail in the silhouettes. Though it may have been faster, it was a bit tricky to see through the sewing foot but it improved as I went and didn't take as long as I feared.

Now the question: with bow or without the bow? The bow makes it look more like a vintage artist's smock, which I like. But the dress certainly doesn't need the bow and the bishop's yoke with peter pan collar is so sweet on its own. I'll have to take some votes...

Gosh, I don't know, I love it both ways - I'm going to say without the bow. I think the red bow draws my eye to the barn applique and without it I focus on ALL the appliques.

I SO wish we lived closer.........I have such a HUGE stash of vintage children's clothing patterns that I've been dying to jump into. Hmmm.....maybe when you get more time (which probably won't be any time soon with your new little one)......we should join up and do a "Vintage Sewing Pattern Sew Along" with our blogs.....how fun would that be??

The dress is adorable and timeless.....as are all your gorgeous creations! Great job!!

I am completely smitten with this dress! You did an amazing job on this -- I could never applique like that. Wow! I vote for without the bow, only because I think without showcases the peter pan collar more.

absolutely adorable dress! i think i might have that pattern so when i'm next in the attic will look to see if i have the cover for it. i also vote no bow. and another thing to consider - if she seems to fidget alot ... you might want to consider no shank buttons. i used to hate when my mom would put cute shank buttons on my church dresses - they poked me in the back and butt. otherwise totally and completely sooo perfect for a 2 year old birthday dress.

I adore this dress! I love the applique at the bottom that matches her invitation. How do you find the time to make all of these adorable things? I just had my third baby girl, and I have so many ideas for things I want to make, but they never seem to materialize. I love your blog...very inspiring.

Oh my goodness -- you keep outdoing yourself! Can't wait to see this adorable dress on the birthday girl. As for the bow ... I really like the pop of red, but agree that sans bow makes the appliques the stars. Perhaps some red (cloche or bow) on her head? :-)

You will be so grateful when you look back on pictures of your children in 20 years that you have clothed them in tasteful, timeless clothing devoid of trendiness. My daughter (age 28) was commenting last night that when she and her friends were looking at old photos, she was the only one without an 80s perm or trendy frou frou clothing. Her photos stood the test and time and looked adorable today, instead of laughable, like the pictures of so many of her friends. She mentioned this because we had gone shopping for baby clothes and I had turned up my nose at nearly everything as being poor quality and trendy. It's so nice to see simple elegant style for children in your blog.